I’m in the early portion of a nice long 12 day vacation up at our cabin in Strawberry. Yesterday my wife and I (and our dog) ventured out for an overnight backpack, actually not very far away, to hike up Strawberry Mountain (which we can see from our place) to camp.

The hike in was not far at all, about a mile, but almost al vertical climb (700 feet), and wore us out! After relaxing, we hiked around 4 miles exploring the ridgeline and the views from up there. We intended to do more today, but were way low on water, so had an easy hike down.

It felt good to give the legs a different task– but back to a run on Thursday!

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It’s Saturday, but I missed the Team-D weekly runs… I’m on vacation for 12 days at our cabin in Strawberry, so I’m on my individual running routine, and getting in some high altitude training (6000 ft). Today, we were scheduled to run 60 minutes, so I did 30 minutes out Fossil Creek Road, turned around and made it back. Pace was very slow, but scenery was fantastic. I hit the 60 minute mark about 75 yards short of ym start, so I lagged a tiny bit on the return.

Near my turn around point on Fossil Creek Road… I love this old abandoned boat that sits out in the farm field, quite far from any navigable water.

I got a total distance of 4.6 miles measured on MapMyRun.com… hmm only 1/5 – 1/6 of a full marathon…. now that is almost depressing.

And I’ll be missing a bunch of Team-D runs with 2 weekends in a row up here;’ the next weekend I’ll be in upstate New York for a work trip, then a weekend up here, so it will be 3rd week in September before I see Team-D again. I’m not bailing, just traveling.

And running where-ever I go.

I guess a good training routine means repeating a route… so again, I did an out and back from Chaparral Park north on the canal, for my 40 minute run. I might have gotten a few yards farther than Tuesday’s effort, and pretty much got back to the start point in the 40 minutes, so in theory, it was the same pace (albeit slow) coming and going.

On some advice from other Team-D runners, I am wearning my pump, but dropping my dose in half while running. I need to do more blood sugar testing before and after to learn better how the body reacts.. I’ve been waking up with numbers on the low end (60-70), which means having to gulp some juice or some cereal before heading out. I’l also using shorts with some nice small pockets, so I can carry glucose, keys, and the iPod Shuffle without having to wear the fanny pack (which got annoying).

And alas, the distances reported by my pedometer are way out of whack, so I juts adjusted based on the more accurate numbers form measuring via MapMyRun- so today’s (and the last one) was more like 3.4 miles than the 4 registered on the useless pedometer.

Okay, the training is starting to feel like it is something I will do for 4 months. Thanks to those who have responded so quickly to my call for sponsors… I know it cna be annoying when friends/family return to you each year with a great cause… but this is a great cause!

This was my second day of “new” training with warm up jog to Chaparral Park, stretch there, then a timed out and back run, coll down walk home, and another round of stretch. Today was better, with a faster time on the return then the out by 1:10. Now the trick is to see how much I can extend the turn around points. I still feel like I am going S-L-O-W.

So Team-D opened training season officially with a 6:00 AM session at the Scottsdale Community College track (SCC is so conveniently located to where I live, I am rather lucky…).

Since I joined the team much later last year, this was something I missed. But first of all, what a great team we have! I did not count, but it seemed nicely crowded, with runners, walkers, people form all over the Valley (and a few even from Payson). I counted at least 3 others wearing the same insulin pump

So today was to benchmark our future progress with some timed laps around the track. First there was 4 laps of slow warm up. Then we ran one lap for time, 400m, supposedly to be at the speed we would do a mile, but I confess I cheated and went a bit faster… 2:09. Then it was a short rest, and we ran a timed mile… I think this was near my times last year of about 2:20-2:30 per lap, or a mile of 9:24.

Now that is nothing really to brag about; there are people that do much faster than that pace in a real marathon… but the only person I am competing with is myself. I think I’d be happy for the marathon to do a 10-11 minute pace… actually I am going to be joyous to finish.

Then we had a great equipment review session, mostly on shoes, from a rep from Performace Footwear who offer this free Footstrike Analysis service where they video you on a treadmill to analyze your foot work. I am due for some new shoes and will try this out this week.

And just to top off the day, I ended up getting some bike miles in. My wife and I had a meeting, and she needed to leave early, so I took the bike along with me, and did the 7 mile ride home. It was stinking hot, and I am pretty rusty on the bike, but it felt good to groove some extra leg work.

After last night’s Team-D kick off, I decided to make a slight change in my training runs. Our schedule lists several runs a week by suggested lengths of time to run…. last year, I ended up choosigin desitances I guessed would ahve me running that length of time, so I was sometimes over, sometimes under.

So my routes were mostly loops, and I would run a distance, sometimes hopeing to improve my time at that distance.

But today I turned it around, and set up an out an back route along the Scottsdale Greenbelt, to run the scheduled 40 minutes. It was okay, no lightning speed, but the key is on the way back seeing how close you can get to being at the same start point by the designated time.. I ended up about 50 yards short, so a tad slower on the back stretch, not much though.

So in this way, as I run the same time, I may aim to increase the distances.

It’s nothing revolutionary or novel, but I am giving it a try. Also, on the suggestions last Saturday from Coach Dave, rather than doing my stretches at my house before and after the tun, I now start the routine with a jog down to the park, do my stretches there, and then take off. I end at the same spot, cool down by walking home, where I do my last stretches.

Tonight was the kick off party for Team Diabetes and it was great to meet so many new people joining us as well as returnees from last year. We learned more about the local American Diabetes Association chapter, learned aboout the training, fund raising, etc, watched some video highlights from last two years, and munched soime great food donated by Sweet Tomatoes.

Apparently, the martathon runs had been in the past a national ADA program, but it could not be sustained and still contribute most of the money to the cause– since then it has been taken up locally. In fact, we learned that Phoenix is the only Team D still in existence, way to go!

So its easy to sit here at the start and say… Hmmm, it’s only 26 miles.

Only 26 MILEs!

Twice as far as I have ever run before.

So today also launches my fund raising effort. Last year, I aimed to raise $1500, and toppe $1800, so I am notching it up a bit to clear at least $2000. So for those that were so nice and generous to me last year…. look out, I’ll be back nagging you again!

I don’t care if you can only give a little, or none, as long as you visit my site, and give me some inspiration! But if you do feel inclined, head over to my sponsorship form, and let me know how you can help.

By the time you have finished reading this, and perhaps decided not to donate, it’s likely 10 more people have been diagnosed, and 1 person has died form diabetic complications. I bet someone in your family, workplace, circle of friends has been affected by this disease. You can do a little by kicking in a few bucks for my run. The ADA has a low overhead for this program; something like 85% of your contribution goes directly to their research, advocavy, and education programs.

So, what do you think? I have decided to “double or nothing” on last year’s 13 mile run!

Perhaps just the effect of a first Team-D run, but today was the first day in a long while that “it” was back in my step. What is “it”? The feeling that I might be able to run a very long time. The feeling I’d rather go than stop. The sensation that this actually feels good.

Not that “it” was a dramatic streaking pace; “it” was slow, but “it” ran today for 6 miles, a length I’ve not run since last Spring.

My feet are still cropping up with the tingling that require a few moments walk rest; the new shoes are likely on the way.

Yesterday was a first meet up on Saturday’s for Team Diabetes- acutally a warm up, since our kick off meeting is this Wednesday… but when Coach Dave e-mails, I jump! It was nostalgic to be out there again at Granada Park where most of our training runs started last year, and to see both some familiar and new faces.

It was nice and low key, we reviewed some basics of training and stretching, and were sent off for a casual 4 miler down to 32nd Street and back.

Oh, and how I wilted in the heat! It was not all that inspiring, and included 3 walk breaks (thanks Lori for chatting during those breaks). And later in the day, my upper body was disturbingly sore.

Shall I complain and whinge some more? To top off the day of activity, my wife and I spent a few hours stripping wallpaper from our bathroom, and this morning I got out early to move about 200 bricks from an old walkway that will be re-done as part of our pool remodel.

Not exactly an auspicious start, but a start nonetheless.

Ugh, my feet have been complaining. Nothing serious, but after about 1-2 miles, my feet are getting tingly, that fallen asleep feeling. A 2 minute walk break seems to ease it up for about another 15 minutes.

The shoes are not too worn out; they were ones bough in December before the first halof marathon, so they did that, some training in February, and another halfie in March. The tread is still good- these are Asics I got at a sporting goods retail store, and the next ones I will likely knuckle down and go to a running store.

Another possibility is socks– they felt rather tight when I took ‘em off. I’ll try one more run with thinnner socks to isolate.

Still a nice moirning route, south instead of north, some clouds out to keep the early sun at bay, and a freaking glorious low hanging full moon.